1891. THE YEAR WE’VE LEFT BEHIND US.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 11, 12 March 1892, Page 246

1891. THE YEAR WE’VE LEFT BEHIND US.

TH E world does not think, with the poet* diplomatist whose recent loss it is still de ploring, that ° When time has flown, how it fled It is better neither to ask nor to tell.**

The history of any year, however uneventful, is worth looking back upon. Twelve months cannot well go by without leaving some record of their passage on the story of a race ; ami it is not alone in paths of revolution and sensationalism thar history makes itself.

To the Queen, the year, if not eventful, has, at least, been busy. The fifty-fourth year of Her Majesty’s happy and glorious reign has been crowded with benevolent activity. A month’s holiday at Grasse was quickly followed by the task of gracing the early days of the Na va lExhi bi t ion (which th e Queen inspected on May 7th) and the visit of Her Majes. ty’s grandson, the German Emperor at the beginning of July. The Kaiser (who

banquetted at Windsor on July 7th and in the Guildhall on the 10th, witnessing a review at Wimbledon on the 11th, and visiting the Premier at Hatfield next day) was quickly followed by the Prince of Naples, who received a Garter at Windsor on August 4th. Then came the festivities of welcome to the French Fleet under Admiral Ger-

vais,commencing on thel 9th and lasting more than a week.

The Prince of Wales celebrated his fiftieth birthday on November 9th, alter being the subject of considerable public attention in connection

with the ba.rarat scandal associated with the name of Su: William Gordon Cumming, and arising out of a visit of the Prince of Wales to KI »• .....I M.. A i

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Wilson at ’frauby Croft. In the libel action unsuccess* fully brought by the latter, which concluded on Jun® 9th, the Prince appeared in Court as a witness. Silver weddings were cele. brated by our own Princii and Princess Christian and by the Czar and Czarina of Russia. The visit of the Empress Frederic to the French capital was made the occasion of an absurd and somewhat brutal de-

monstration by the Chauvinists of Paris. Other notable events in the life of the Royal Family of this conn try, which must be passed over with a bare mention, were the. erection of a monument to the late DUKE OF ALBANY at Cannes, the marriage of Princess Louise to Prince Ai:i her i , t he tire atSandringham House, and the illness of Prince George of Wai er, now happily terminated in

his restoration to health and the betrothal of

the Duke of Clarence to the charming and popular Princess Victoria of Teck. Death, which has spared our own Royal house, has been busy on the Continent. Prince Baldwin of Flanders died on January 22, and Prince Jerome Napoleon on March 17, the latter being “succeeded *’ in his claims to the French throne by Prince VI CTOR N A I*ol. EON.

At the beginning of the year Sir E. Guinness was raised to what some call the beerage, in the title of Lord Iveagh. Mr. Lidderdale, whose able management of the Bank of England during the Baring crisis was universally commended, has become a Privy Councillor ; Lord Dufferin has succeeded the late Right Hon. W. H. Smith as Warden of the Cinque Ports, Mrs. Smith becoming Lady Hambledon in her own right. Deaths in

the Peerage have been unusually numerous, among the most notable names being Lord Granville, the Earl of Albemarle, Lord Clancarty, the Duke of Bedford (by suicide), the Duke of Cleveland, Lord Cottesloe, Earl Beauchamp, Lord Cheylesnrore, the Earl of Clonmel!, the Earl of Dartmouth, the Earl of Portsmouth, Lord Tollemache, the Earl of West-

moreland, and last, but perhaps most regrettable loss of all, the Earl of Lytton, alike distinguished as a poet and diplomatist. Two A rchhishops of York have died, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Magee, Dr. Maclagan, Bishop of Lichfield, succeeding the latter, while Canon Legge has been translated to the See of Lichfield. Dr. M a gee was followed at Peterborough by Canon Creighton, whose works on English history are well known. Bishop Wilkinson, who retired, was succeeded by Dr. Gott. The See of Carlisle is left vacant by the recent very sudden death of Dr. Harvey Goodwin. Dr. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church at Oxford (the Liddell of “Liddell and Scott”) has also resigned. Outside the Church of England, the

interest ot the Roman hierarchy in labour questions has been marked by an Ency clical thereon from the Pope who, like the Emperor William, has also issued a rescript in condemnation of duelling. “ General ” Booth has won something more tangible than “golden opinions from all sorts of people ” in the Colonies, but the Salvation Army has fallen

on troublous times in Eastbourne. The Rev. George Rogers, oldest Congregationalist minister in Great Britain, is dead. Mr. Spurgeon, whose condition during the summer excited great alarm, is warned by his doctors that his disease is still unconquered. On the death of Dr. Adler, Chief Rabbi, his son. Dr. Herman Adler, the distinguished scholar, succeeded to that office. Mme. Blavatsky has thrown the mantle of the

Mahatmas, left vacant by her own decease, on the shoulders of Mrs. Besant. On March 30, a thrill of horror ran through the nation at the news of the Manipur massacre, in which Messrs. Grimwood and Quinton, English officials, had been slaughtered, and a force oi native troops cut to pieces in trying to adjust a local intrigue. Mrs. Grimwood, whose heroic conduct and hairbreadth escape have been the talk of all Europe,

has published her reminiscences of life in Manipur. In Canada Sir J. Macdonald,

who framed a charge of treason against his political opponents, triumphed at the General Election in March, and, dying on June 6, was succeeded by the Hon. J. J. C. Abbott. We have had visits from Sir William Wh iteway, who pleaded the cause of the Newfoundland fishermen at the Bar of Parliament, and from the Hon.

Cfcil Rhodes, Cape Premier and presidentoitheCliartcred Company of South Africa, whose troops had come into conflict with the Portuguese which Mr. Rhodes hastened to Downing Street to justify. Though tauchy on the Egyptian question, France has been friendly to us generally, and our welcome to the fleet, already mentioned, created much cordial feeling. Ex-President Gisfcvv, wlir. died at the great age of 84 on September 9th, was

quickly followed to the grave by Gen. Boulanger, who, consistent to the last, committed suicide in the most approved style of melodrama, on the grave of Mme. de Bonnemain at Brussels. Theodore de Ban ville, the great French poet, M. Fortune du Boisgobey, novelist; Octave Feuillet, novelist and dramatist, have been lost to the literary circle of Paris during the year. On April 24th, General Von Moltke, the organiser

of German military ascendancy, died of sheer old age, loaded with honours and universally lamented. Russia has had her hands full, first with a most anachronistic persecution and expulsion of the Jews, whom Baron Hirsch hopes to save by becoming the Moses of a new Exodus, and then with the most appalling famine of historic times, both incidents strongly recalling th®

story of another land of bondage : the arrest of Capt. Younghusband, and the Pamir incident are still fresh in all minds. A strange canard circulated for speculative reasons, on September 14 th, affirmed that the island of Mitylene had been occupied by a British man-of-war’s crew, an exaggeration of a simple visit by marines for exercising purposes, permitted by the local authori-

ties. China has been the scene of a dreadful insurrection and atrocities committed on native and European Christians, which commenced with a riot at Wuhu in May last. There have been earthquakes at San Salvador, San Francisco, and, on an appalling scale, in Japan, while a. tornado at Martinique in August produced 50 wrecks, besides killing3oo people and

injuring upwards of a thousand more. An upheaval of another kind has taken place in Chili, where a revolution had commenced the previous year. The President. General Balmaceda, finally overthrown by the Congressional forces, avoided capture and probable 4fxecution by suicide. Dom Pedro, the ex-Emperor of Brazil, died in exile on Dppptyi-

aied m exile on December 4th, just when disturbances in Brazil began to look as though he might one day be recalled to the throne.

Tn the Army and Navy no great events have aken place. Bisley, the new’ Wimbledon, proved very satisfactory shooting ground, and was the

scene of remarkable triumphs by a lady marksman, Miss Leale, of whom a sketch is annexed. Admiral Wallis, the father of the Fleet, has attained his hundredth year: several large vessels have been launched, some of them by The Queen in person, and a Naval Exhibition in London has been a great success,

financially and popularly. Probably no better recruit-

ing advertisement for the Fleet could have been devised. The mimic operation shown in the lake, at Chelsea, delighted all visitors. In home polities 18»1 will be set down in history as the year of Free Education, which Act was passed by the House of Commons in a little more than a month, thanks to the skilful man agement of the measure by Sin W. Hakt-Dyke. Mr. Goschen’s Budget was satisfactory, if not very brilliant, the surplus of nearly two millions being divided between Free Education, as aforesaid, Barracks, and renewal of defectiva Gold Coinage.

For the rest the politics of the year are chiefly rendered memorable by the number of important statesmen who have died, and the official changes thus necessitated. The death roll includes such names as Mr. Charles BbadlaugH (Jan. 30th), Earl Gran* ville (March 31st), Mr. Parnell (whose death, on Oct. 6th, so quickly followed his marriage with Mrs. O’Shea. Mr. Cecil

Raikes, Postmaster-General, the Rt. Hon. W. H. Smith (Oct. 6th), Sir John Poi*k Hennessey, Mr. Cavendish Bentinck, Mr. W. H. Gladstone, The O’Gorman Mahon, and Lord Edward Cavendish. Mr. Arthur Balfour (who is succeeded in the Irish Secretaryship by Mr. Jackson) becomes Leader of the Commons, and Sir J. Fergusson Postmaster-)-eneral. The vacated Financial Secretaryship is given to Sn: John Gorst, whose action on labour questions pro bably caused the appointment of the Labour Com

mission, over which Lord Hartington still presides. Sir John, like Mr. Balfour, was once a member of the defunct Fourth Party, whose leader, Lord Randolph Churchill, “bearded like the paid,” has been playing at Special Correspondent in South Africa. The effort of Sir Charles Dilke to reappear in public life has excited much indignation in some quarters. Mb. Gladstone, young as ever, has

naturally made many speeches, and Lord Salisbury no fewer. The year began with all eyes concentrated on Boulogne, where Mr. Parnell was treating with Mkssrs. O’Brien and Dillon for the re-union of divided ranks The latter members, when Mil. Parnull broke olf all negotiations on February 11th, returned to England, and

were arrested next day to undergo their sentence of six months imprisonment, from which they were released on July 30th. Early in tb« year much distress occurred in Ireland: Miss Balfour and Lady Zetland made an interestingtour in the famine stricken districts, and opened a subscription, which was supplemented by Government funds and relief works. Meantime, in politics, the

Pa rnellite split showed no signs, as it shows n< ne now, of closure, and even over the grave of the Uncrowned King the contending parties could not shake hands. All progress, however, has been on the side opposed to Mn. Parnell; and Mb. John Redmond, on whom his mantle fell, failed to secure election even in Cork. The memory of John Bright has been perpetu-

atcd by the erection of two - statutes during the year, one at Manchester, and the other at his native place, Rochdale, yet, as Lord Derby said, in performing the unveiling, at

Manchester, “John Bright needed no statue to keep him in the memory of his countrymen, for he had written his name in large and durable letters in the histnrv nF

mixers in tne history of England.” The Clitheroe case, in which a Mr. Jackson had forcibly “ abducted ” his own wife, who declined to live with him, was the judicial sensation of the year, a writ of habeas corpus being granted, and the principle established that conjugal rights cannot be enforced against the person of an unwilling party.

The squalid details of the Russell separation case, ami the St. John case, will be none too soon forgotten. Lord President Inglis, J ustice-General for Scotland, died on August 20th. Punch celebrated its jubilee, under the editorship of Mr. F. C. Burnand, and in the course of the year has lost two of its most distinguished contributors, Gilbert Arthur a’Beckett

and Charles Keene. Mr. John Latey,fifty years editor of the IIJ/itstratcd London News, died on January 6th, and Mr. A. W. Kinglake, author of “ Ebthen,”on January 2nd. Two diplomatists who were also poets, have passed away, each amid a paean of praise and regret— Mr. Jam es RusseliJLo well late United States Minister to this country, and Lord Lytton, well remembered as “ Owen Meredith,” the poet of many beautiful lyrics, British Ambassador in Paris.

Lord Tennyson, in his 83rd year, ret :ined enough of his youthful tire to write the beautiful hymn “ Crossing the Bar.” Mr. W. G. Wills, the well-known dramatist, and Mr. G. T. Bettany, scientific lecturer and man of letters, have died in the closing month of the year. Dr. Huggins, the great astronomer, officiated as President of the British Association at

Cardiff, and his address on August 19th contained a remarkable revelation of the wonders of science. A memorial to Christopher Marlowe was unveiled at Canterbury with a remarkable speech by Mr. Henry Irving, and a bust of the late

Matthew Arnold, by Lord Coleridge, in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, with a thoroughly appropriate address. The death of Mr. Barry Sullivan, actor, (May 3rd), with that of Mr? Henry Farmer, musical composer (June 25th) constituted the greatest losses sustained by the drama and music in this country. Mr. Laurence Barrett, actor, died in America on March 20th, and the great “moral”

showman and champion advertiser of the world, Phineas T. Barnum, on April 7. The published plays of Henrik Ibsen have given rise to much controversy, usually of the heated kind, and much ink lias been “ slung ” in connection therewith. Messrs. A. W. Pinero and H. A. Jones have likewise adopted the plan of publishing theii plays. As a nine days’ wonder jmust be mentioned the feats of “the Little Georgia Magnet,” Mrs. Annie Abbott, who performs mysterious feats of strength, “ which yet unseen most would have thought impossible,” by the alleged heir at tain magnetic powers.

The foundations of a structure whi«*h is to rival the Eiffel Tower have he»*” ’*»id near London, and we give a sketch which will what the finished

structure will be like. We give portraits of Mdlle. Melba and the Due d’Orleans, who have become notoriously prominent during the year. The pianist of the year has un< doubtedly been M. Radek, ewski. Mil Sims Reeve* has given his “last farewell concert,” and Mme. Patti has at length opened her long-talked of private opera theatre at Craig-y-nos. Mr. T. A. Edison’s j honograph has continued, in its

perfected form, to excite great public interest, and in combination with his kineto graph, by which the actual movements can be recorded and reproduced at will through the intermediary of a magic lantern, should produce startling results. Liquefied gas guns and dynamite projectiles have been exhibited in England and America, and may in a few years become indispensable

adjuncts to modern armaments, which, as they are exceedingly costly, is not very good news for the taxpayer. General Dyrenforth claims to produce rain at will, by the action of high explosives in small balloons. Art has lost many distinguished exponents. J. E. Meissonier, the great French painter, died on the. last day of January; Keeley Halswelle, 1: a., on April 11th, and Edwin Long, r.a., on May 15th. The greatest

caricaturist since Leech, Charles Keenf. (“C.K.”) did not survive to see the jubilee of Punch, having passed away on January 4th. At the Royal Academy the picture of the year was generally considered to be “The Doctor” by Luke Fildes. Mr. Calderon’s picture “ The Renunciation of St. Elizabeth of Hungary,” has been ill turn the

subject of controversy, both of the historical kind and of that other sort proverbially inadvisible, an entertaining speech by Lord Salisbury, and a parody in a satirical Christmas number. Among what may be terme 1 miscellaneous events is Cart. Shaw’s retirement from the direction of the London Fire Brigade. He. was not allowed to go without a determined effort being ma le to induce him to withdraw his resignation. The

Jubilee of Cook’s Tours lias been celebrated with due eclat, and that of the Tonic Sol-fa with musical honours. Sir J. W. I’.AZA LG ETTE, Engineer of Ihe Thames Embankment, has passed away. The omnibus men of London have struck, and the conditions of their employment been readjusted, more or less to their satisfaction, while the Scotish Railway strike, which last January found in full progress, ter-

m noted unfavourably to the strikers, despite the advocacy of Mr. John Burns, who se ms to be developing into ch uupion-gcneral for all dis itisfied l abour. May-day was celebrated as the workman's festival, not without bloodshed on the Continent; but the first Sunday in May, here adopted as Labour-day in it; stead, passed over in peace, thanks to the English plan of indulging the taste for oratory which all workmen inherit. Strangely enough there

have passed away all in this year, the last surviving officers who fought at Waterloo (General Wiuchcote and Major Hewitt), and Lady De Rom, who was pi esent at the eventful ball, described in Byron’s stirring poem, which took place on the eve ofj the great battle, is also dead. ■fuming from work to play, 1891 had a wet Hen-

ley—a more miserable exhibition of the typical English climate has not been seen for years. The Leander crew, which was practically the Oxford crew of the year, won the Grand Challenge Cup, their first race with the Thames crew—a dead heat—being a most exciting performance. The four-oared races for the Goblets, in which the crews of Oxford v. (’ambridge rowing contended, were also unprecedentedly close in their

finishes. There was also what may not

inappropriately Im- called, a “Common” place Derby. The dutfin of jockeys, J. OsBOKNE has retired, and a sadder retreat has Wen sought by Nightingale, the famous trainer, by Mb. Henry Sampson’ (“Pendragon,” of the Rrjerte), ami Mi:. C. W. Blake (“Augur,” of the Spotting Life). An English rider, Mu. G. P. Mills, beat all France in ♦he great eyrie rice from ’’aris to Bordeaux. Sue* <s the old year.

It has taken away many that wc can ill spare, while it has brought little on which we can greatly congratulate ourselves. But the nation is happy which has no history, ami progress, on which Mn. A rth r R Ba lfou Rdiscoursed so eloquently the other day, has been steady, peaceful, ami beneficent. Disaster has been mercifully withheld. and, on the whole, wc should be lacking in gratitude if we allowed the tears, which have fallen on many honoured graves, to obscure our vision, or hide from us

the many which 1891 has left behind.